JOSH Newman went to the Australian Olympic Youth Festival for the experience — but will be coming home to south Essex with a gold medal.

The 14-year-old trampoline ace from Noak Bridge was selected by Team GB with Harry Newbold-Cozens to compete in the individual and synchronised events in Sydney.

And the Billericay School pupil had set his sights on making the individual final and had no expectations in the synchro.

But Josh and his Manchester-based synchro partner trumped the world to land a gold in the event, while finishing 10th in the individual discipline.

“We are absolutely chuffed as anything,” said proud dad Stuart Newman.

“We stayed up and we were getting snippets of information from various people.

“Josh was disappointed with his performance in the individual after making a mistake in his voluntary routine.

“But when we saw they had got gold in the synchro, I had to look at the result about four times before it sunk in. “The routine they did was faultless and to win a medal is in an achievement.”

The Brentwood Trampoline Club member had headed out to the State Sports Hall in Sydney, which hosted the trampolining event at the 2000 Olympic Games, hoping to make the final of the individual event.

He turned in a personal best in the set routine and was in fourth place in the standings.

But he had put in an extra move in his voluntary routine and missed it, which led to him being deducted three points.

Josh finished 10th with 95.775, while Harry secured fourth place.

The pair have competed before in the synchro at the Sofia Cup in Bulgaria last October, where things did not go too well.

Harry lives in Salford so they do not have many opportunities to train together and Team GB policy is that whoever is selected to compete at an event are partnered for the synchro.

Josh had called the synchro “hit and miss” before heading to Australia, but the time the pair spent training together paid dividends as they finished more than a point clear of Australia’s blue pairing.

The teenager is due back home on Wednesday when Stuart, mum Debra and sisters Alex and Natasha will get a chance to see Josh’s medal.

Josh and Harry’s gold was one of a host of successes for Team GB’s gymnasts, with women’s synchro pairing Izzy Songhurst and Megan Pettit taking silver and finishing fourth and fifth respectively in the individual.

The men’s artistic gymnastics team won gold and the women silver.

And there were a further eight golds, eight silvers and six bronzes in the individual artistic gymnastics, while the rhythmic gymnasts finished fifth.